All Italian fans love Armin Schwarz for his naturalness, for his
acrobatic driving style, for his big accidents too ... The Italians love
his spectacular driving, we consider Armin a very latin driver despite
his light blue eyes and his fair hair. During his long career, Armin has
always had a big following in Italy and I think that many people in my
country would have been happy to see him in a Lancia-Martini works car.
But we have a lot of very good tarmac drivers in Italy, too. And Armin is
considered faster on this surface than on gravel.

Sergio Remondino, Autosprint and Rallysprint magazine, Italy

In any case, we all applauded his first win in the World Championship,
1991 with a Toyota Celica in Spain. It came after a good third place in
Australia. And Armin would continue to perform at a very high levels,
with Toyota, Mitsubishi, Ford, Skoda, Hyundai.

But the core question is and remains, what Armin stands for and
represents in the sport. And, I repeat, he is one of most loved drivers
amongst the Italian people. Communicativity is not a common quality, on
the contrary, it is rare. And Armin has a lot of it.

Now, for him there's the new challenge of Baja races in North America
with that exotic prototype which resembles a bug. Honestly, I think that
is a great idea, c ompletely in Armin Schwarz's life style. But I think
also that it was a little bit too early losing Armin for traditional
rallies. Yes, he is 45 years old (16th July, best wishes!), but I think
he still can do a very good job. For example at the wheel of Super2000
cars.

Try it again, Armin!

All the best,
Sergio

***

Navigation: Racing through the desert with the help of satellites and a
dump can

It is always an exciting moment to get a taste of the adventure awaiting
us when we at All German Motorsports download the organisers‘ route
for the next race.

What we see is a map of the desert with a coloured line running through.
This line marks the route - roughly. Then we sit there together:
"Do you remember? That's where it went steep down into the
small gully. You had to go left past the huge boulders. Otherwise you
didn't have a chance to get out again." Much of it is
familiar, much is new.

The map shows several GPS points for our orientation. GPS stands for
Global Positioning System, a satellite-guided navigational assistance.
Every car has a GPS sender and receiver. The satellites track our
position and pass it on to our GPS equipment and to the organiser's. In
this way, we and everyone from the organiser to our mechanics always
knows precisely where we are tormenting ourselves and the Buggy in the
endless desert.

Several of these GPS points are check points where we must stop briefly.
Up until 2006 it was still different at some races. At the Baja 250 and
the Baja 500 we had to carry a small aluminium can fixed to our Buggy,
called a Dump Can. The officials at the check points threw a piece of
paper with their stamp and signature into the dump can. At the finish it
was made sure you had all the "papers" in your dump can. It's a
pity that this wonderful old-fashioned ceremony has disappeared.

Here the navigation has to be very precise in order to be fast

At the other GPS points we simply have to drive past within a distance of
up to circa 200 metres from the respective point. Within this tolerance
we are free to choose the fastest route. Only during the pre-run shortly
before the race do we decide which track we will actually take. The
co-driver then marks our chosen route in the electronic map with a
brightly coloured line.

The cockpit with the big GPS screen right besides the rev counter

Our own route on the electronic sketch is so exact that my navigator can
tell me via intercom what kind of corner we're approaching. Additionally,
the organiser marks ‘Way Points' on the map. These are
dangerous places like deep holes, crests, washaways. But the organisers
don't make us nervous putting too many way points in the map. In desert
racing one rule applies: "If you wanna compete here you should know
what you're doing." This is a great attitude - especially
these days where European racing tends to be overregulated.

The navigator sees the map on a large monitor that is attached in the
shade of the dashboard. We use monitors from offshore racing boats. They
are dust and waterproof. And they can withstand quite a shake up.

We take our screens from offshore racing. They survive almost anything

I think it's easy to read between the lines: I can't wait to get
going for the next SCORE race. On 5-6 September we contest the SCORE
Terrible's Primm 300, where we still have a little score to settle.
In 2007 I drove the first stint and at half distance led the class by
four minutes. Matthias Kahle took over but had to take it easy. We
finished fourth in our class.

When the night falls perfect navigation is even more crucial

But before the trip over the Atlantic things are hotting up at home: The
World Rally Championship visits Germany. Major TV station, RTL,
broadcasts this WRC round this coming weekend. As a former WRC regular
I'm providing back up to the TV specialists and comment the action.

After nine of 15 WRC rounds, Finland's Mikko Hirvonen leads the
championship one point ahead of Sebastien Loeb, with Chris Atkinson close
behind the two. In Germany Mikko will have to prove how fast he is on
asphalt against Sebastien, after the Frenchman beat him on his home turf
in Finland.

It won't be easy for Mikko to keep his title hopes alive,
especially looking at the WRC calendar. After Germany comes the New
Zealand Rally, followed by Corsica and Spain. That's three asphalt events
(Germany, Corsica, Spain), and only one on gravel, where Mikko feels
naturally at home ... in any case I'm looking forward to the
on-going right of these two world class rally drivers.

At the end of August I'll be back with my comments from the New
Zealand Rally and with a preview of the Primm 300.